OTTAWA, Sept. 25, 2020 /CNW/ - Canada's Minister of Natural Resources, the Honourable Seamus O'Regan, today released the following statement to celebrate National Forest Week:
"Every September, Canadians mark National Forest Week by celebrating the essential role of forests as a valuable, renewable resource that shapes our history and identity.
"This year's theme is Healthy Forests, Healthy Future, and it is particularly significant as Canadians reflect on critical issues such as health care, climate change and helping our communities.
"Our forest sector is stepping up during Canada's COVID-19 pandemic response — adapting and implementing unique technologies and processes to manufacture new products to keep Canadians safe and healthy. Our innovative companies have been busy producing personal protective equipment such as paper face masks and gowns for our essential workers.
"There can be no solution to climate change without our forests. The forest sector continues to help reduce emissions by enabling forested ecosystems to function in ways that sequester, store and reduce CO2 emissions.
"We also recognize the value, both economically and culturally, that the forest sector brings to Indigenous communities. Our intention is to partner with Indigenous peoples to build a stronger, more resilient forest sector that will thrive for generations to come.
"That's why our government is making generational investments across the forest sector. It's why in the Speech From the Throne this week, our government highlighted the need for nature-based solutions to fight climate change, including by planting two billion trees over the next 10 years — making our air and water cleaner and our communities greener.
"Also this week, the Government of Canada announced a total of over $31 million in funding that will help the forest sector and advance the bioeconomy across the country. These investments include over $26 million for clean energy projects in rural and remote Indigenous communities that reduce the burning of fossil fuels for heat and power — helping to fight climate change.
"We also announced nearly $4 million dollars to promote the use of wood in the construction of non-residential buildings, demonstrating that wood is a renewable source material in construction that also reduces greenhouse gas emissions.
"Forests are fundamental to our economy, culture, traditions and history — and to our net-zero future."
SOURCE Natural Resources Canada
Ian Cameron, Press Secretary, Office of the Minister of Natural Resources, 613-447-3488 , [email protected]; Natural Resources Canada, Media Relations, 343-292-6100, [email protected]
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